Editorial. 2026 Municipal Elections: The Drum and Bugle of Inaugurations

The music has been building all summer, culminating this past week with a grand finale. A Bolero of inaugurations. Here, a bike path, there, a new garbage room, a new exhibition, a renovated municipal building, everywhere, scissors slung over their shoulders, ready to cut into every last sliver on the horizon. In recent days, some mayors have embarked on a frantic and compulsive race to the inauguration. To make an impression, to touch the hearts of voters. To show that the municipality did the job during the term. Fair enough, you might think. With increasingly constrained budgets, elected officials intend to show how their fellow citizens' money was used wisely. We must also remember their frustration during the last campaign. In 2020, due to Covid, the inauguration was held remotely.

But why these ceremonies now, more than six months before the elections scheduled for March 15 and 22 ? That's the subtlety of the Electoral Code. For the upcoming municipal elections, it imposes strict rules. Starting this Monday, September ¹ , the start of the pre-election period, communication activities, as well as fundraising, are regulated. Candidates already in office can no longer highlight their record using local government funds. Failure to comply risks election cancellation, ineligibility, fines, or even a court conviction. Hence the rush to inaugurate with all their might, flooding social media with videos. Obviously, if a dissolution of the National Assembly were to become a reality, followed, why not, by a presidential election, the entire electoral calendar would be disrupted. And the possibility of a second round of inaugurations would become possible again, in the event of a postponement of the municipal elections.